NATIONALISATION IN BRITAIN REVEALS DIFFICULTIES

Grey River Argus, 10 May 1948, Page 2

NATIONALISATION IN BRITAIN REVEALS DIFFICULTIES

LONDON, May 3 The Times says: Mr Emanuel Shinwell, Secretary of State for War and chairman of the Labour Party, addressing the Co-operative Congress in Edinburgh said tnat there had been far too little detailed preparation oi nationalisation schemes. He said: “When we nationalised the coal mining industry we thought we knew all about it, wnereas in tact we did not.” He added that extreme care had to be taken so that the difficulties which were arising did not make it impossible to proceed further with the nationalisation of industries. The Times adds: “The machinery of public administration, particularly the machinery of the central Government, is beginning to crack un</lr the stra.m of fresh tasks daily loaded on to it. The bureaucracy, managing the vast system of temporary State controls which are the heritage of the war, is working with decreasing efficiency without the extra burdens that nationalisation imposes.” The Daily Express says: “Mr Shinwell’s admission that his Government had no firm ideas on how to carry out its nationalisation projects is an example of political dishonesty scarcely to be matched in the history of any party. The fact-was that the Socialists did not care, so long as they were returned to power.” The Daily Mail said: “We do not forget that Mr Shinwell, as a former Minister of Fuel and Power, was the chief agent in nationalising coal. The nation was deceived if he and his colleagues did. not know what they were doing.”